The Harbinger
by Lilith Celesse
Summary: The adventure continues, picking up from ending events of Medea during Crisis Core, to the game events of FF7, and assembling of the Avalanche Team, and the rise of a new hero. Though one still hopes for the return of the old, and she is much older now, and more smarted and prepared for what is to come. For whatever Shinra has to throw at her, because she has her own reasons


_**The Harbinger**__**: Chapter One**_

**Disclaimer: This is set 1 year after Medea, so Lilith is 15 now. I do not own FF7 they belong to Square Enix, I only own the OC characters, Lilith and Raziah.**

_**"According to President Shinra, there have been reports of many men being found dead, and the most of these men were in fact SOLDIER cadets and infantrymen, that had been in the army or just recently joined the army. Rumors suggest that it was the AVALANCHE team, though most speculate that it may have been the work of only one person. However, that was quickly disproved, when a new theory emerged that these SOLDIERs were attacked head on, when they were armed. The coroner stated that they were attacked from behind, by either a blunt object, of some sort or gunshot to the back of the head or the spine. So far the identity of this mystery vigilante remains an unsolved mystery. Authorities have issued a curfew for all around the city of Midgar, which goes on as follows: It is no longer safe for anyone to be wandering around past 11 pm. Everyone is required to have a partner with them, anyone out by themselves and past curfew, will be immediately taken into custody under suspicion of being a murderer."**_

The static wore on loudly, as Raziah struggled to listen to it before it continued on.

_**"In other news, Shinra is beginning to lose jobs fast, and it is rumored that someone is leaking information, and there is a chance that they might go bankrupt, due to the mako canon failure. Now we take it to-"**_

The anchor lady continued to go on, and switch to another speaker, but Raziah had begun ignoring them. She was on the train to Midgar and would be fast approaching, to see her best friend and penpal, Lilith Celestyn, who was close to her age, maybe a year younger than her.

Raziah was 16, so that meant that Lilith should be 15 right now – Raziah pushed aside her dark thick wavy hair and smiled, this was her first time being away from home, and so far away.

Her warm hazel, chocolate eyes, twinkled brightly; she couldn't wait to see her childhood pen pal.

She wondered how she was doing? The older girl hadn't heard from her younger friend in almost a year, and that concerned her, the dark haired brunette really hoped she would find her friend here in this city.

Finally the train stopped and the doors slid open, people stepped in and some stepped off, Raziah grabbed her luggage suitcase, and walked towards the doors, and stepped off at the train station. She looked around, and saw tall buildings, glowing street lamps, and people bustling around; the 16 year old shifted uncomfortably, and nervously, this city was bigger than she thought, but she would still try and search for the girl. Raziah walked on, through the platform and onto the streets – she passed by some clubs, bars, and shops, "Excuse me," a kind and sweet voice called out to her making her turn around. The young teen saw a beautiful, innocent-looking woman dressed in a long pink dress and a red half-jacket, she had long brown hair, tied into a long braid, with a pink ribbon, and pretty sparkling natural-looking green eyes, "Hello. Would you like to buy some flowers," the girl asked her kindly. She looked to be very young, but not as young as her, perhaps either 19 or 20, maybe 21. The lady looked nice enough, but Raziah smiled back sweetly, "No. Thank you though," she looked down at the basket she was carrying, "They look very pretty, did you grow them yourself," she asked curious and surprised.

"Yup, sure did," the girl answered joyously. "Well, I have to get going, thank you for the offer though," the younger girl said with a smile.

The flower girl smiled back, "Of course. And if you ever need to buy some flowers please come to me."

Raziah nodded with a bright smile, "I sure will thank you, bye." She waved goodbye to her, and continued on her path.

Now, where should she start?

_BOOOMM!_

That sounded like an explosion. Raziah whirled around, and gasped in surprise – where did that come from!? It sounded like it happened close by! People stopped what they were doing, most had run off, probably terrified.

Soon all of them started running, and before Raziah knew it, she was being forced into a clustered crowd and had to run too.

Raziah frowned as people ran past her, she stopped a man nearby, "Excuse me sir, but what is going on," she asked anxiously. "Those AVALANCHE rebels bombed a mako reactor," he answered quickly, then ran off before Raziah had a chance to ask another question.

Avalanche...?

_XOXOXOXOXOXO_

A long day of searching, resulted in nothing for Raziah, and that only made her more tired, so in the end she decided to head to a place called Seventh Heaven, a popular bar in the slums. The 16 year old walked in; the place looked quiet, but not as crowded, it looked like it received a good number of customers. Taking a slight breath, Raziah went to go sit down, a busty and pretty bartender went to take her order, she introduced herself as Tifa. Raziah ordered a sandwich, and some soda, Tifa went to go get her order, so Raziah waited – the lighting looked great, and it set a great ambiance, there was some soft music playing in the background it sounded like piano music.

There was a grand black piano, in the center of the bar, where Raziah could see a young girl sit in it, and from what she could tell, she looked very young, but she could only see the top of her head, and her brow.

From what she could tell the girl had black hair; and young as she looked she played like a professional.

The crowd enjoyed the melody, and it took Raziah only a minute to realize that the tune, she was playing, Beethoven's Fur Elise, but it sounded more upbeat and pleasant.

Raziah listened, resting her chin against her fist, enjoying the melody.

Before she knew it, the song ended just as quickly as it began; there was a light and airy applause; the audience seemed to like the piece.

The girl stood up, and Raziah held her breath – the girl looked about her age, maybe a bit younger, roughly around the age 15. She had dark hair, which brushed down past her shoulders, and it looked straight, slick and smooth, she had fuchsia, magenta tinted eyes. "Excuse me," a soft feminine voice called out to her, getting her attention, which made her turn her head and look up. It was the bartender, Tifa, "Anything else you need?" Raziah smiled, "Well, no thank you, but your pianist is amazing." The brunette smiled, "Thank you. Isn't she though? She's quite young for her age isn't she?" Raziah nodded, "Yes ma'am. Would you mind telling me what her name is?" Tifa nodded and smiled, "Why certainly, she is after all my adoptive sister. Her name's Lilith." Raziah's breath hitched again, Lilith. Could she be the same Lilith that was her friend, almost 2 years ago? Her penpal?

Raziah finally got her bearings back and nodded, "I see. Quite an unusual name. Thank you." The dark haired girl stood up, "What do I owe you?"

"20 gil," Tifa answered pleasantly.

The 16 year old nodded, and paid her, as she watched the girl at the piano slowly walk towards the door, with her coat in her hands.

Raziah went and followed her, and once they were outside, she slowly approached her, and tapped her shoulder, making the other dark haired girl look over her shoulder in surprise, "Um, hello," the younger girl said uncertainly.

The older girl smiled, "Hi, I was at the bar watching you play earlier, and I just wanted to say that your playing was wonderful," Raziah complimented her.

The girl smiled at her, "Oh, thanks. That's very kind of you to say," she smiled faintly, a light pink dusting tinging her cheeks, "I'm sorry to be upfront with you all of a sudden, but would you mind telling me your name if you don't mind," Raziah asked politely.

The pianist stared at her curiously with narrowed eyes, "Why," she asked carefully; she looked at her like she was trying to figure her out.

Raziah sighed, and looked down, "I came here looking for a friend, so I'm not from around here, my name is Raziah, an-," she was cut off, "Raziah? Did you just say Raziah?"

The older girl looked at her in surprise, "Y-yeah, why?" The other girl just stared at her, "You came here looking for a friend, you said?" Raziah nodded, "Yeah, her name's Lilith Celestyn, she was my penpal, but I lost contact with her almost 2 years ago," she explained, running a hand through her thick ringlets of dark curls.

"It's good to finally see you," the girl said with a smile, which made Raziah gasp, "Lilith?"

The girl, who Raziah now recognized as Lilith, smiled even more, "Yeah. Good to see you finally?" Raziah threw her arms around Lilith, which made her stumble back a bit, but slowly return the embrace.

"Where have you been," Raziah asked pulled away, to look at her, giving her a stern look; Lilith stared at her, her smile slowly dropping. She bit her lip, and stared at her, "Not here. Later. Do you have a place to stay tonight?"

Raziah shook her head, "Not at the time being," she answered honestly, noticing that Lilith had lowered her voice into a much more lower and softer tone.

Lilith stepped out of her friend's embrace, "Come with me, you can stay at my place tonight," she took her hand and started guiding her.

They walked through the streets and arrived one of the old sectors, where most of the apartments were. The girls got to one, and stopped outside of it; it had wooden boards all over it – on the windows, only showing a few cracks, and on the doorway, past the iron, metallic-winding gate. Lilith released Raziah's hand, pushing the gate door aside, and lifted one of the boards up, and found the doorknob. Raziah's brows shot up in surprise at this strange and covert behavior, "Lilith? What are you doing?" Lilith didn't answer, she pushed a key into the lock, and twisted it. She pushed the wooden board up, and moved another one aside, making a perfect entry way. Lilith turned and looked at Raziah, beckoning to her, "Come on," she urged her. Raziah frowned, but nodded hesitantly – why would her friend be living in a dump like this?

She bent down, compressing herself into a slouching position and squeezed through the wide large opening, and made it past the door, and waited for Lilith to do the same. Lilith slid right in, then moved the boards outside, carefully maneuvering them, into their proper former places.

Then she closed the door, and locked it. Raziah watched Lilith carefully, her behavior was strange indeed, almost like she was hiding something.

The older girl recalled the guarded look, Lilith first had when she had approached her, outside of the Seventh Heaven bar.

How suspicious, Lilith had been of her at first – like she did not trust anyone around her. "Do you live here," Raziah asked her increduously. Lilith nodded, "Yeah, kind of," she said absently, while heading towards a staircase.

Raziah followed after her, sending an odd look at Lilith's back.

The two ascended up, and made their way into a hallway corridor, "What is this place," Raziah asked, looking around.

Lilith didn't look back at her, and just stared ahead, "This place is an abandoned apartment complex. It's the place I used to live in with my guardian," she answered listlessly.

"What sector is this?" Raziah asked quietly.

"Sector 7 slums, why?" Lilith asked softly.

Raziah shrugged, following her down the hallway, "No reason," she paused when they finally made it to an oak brown door, "This was the apartment room I once stayed in and still do," she explained.

The 16 year old nodded, and watched Lilith pull out a hair clip and push it into the lock, and twist it until she unlocked and opened it, "Come on, we should be safe here," Lilith said calmly.

Raziah frowned, "Safe from what?" She let curiosity get the better of her as she asked this.

Lilith finally turned and glanced at her, "Shinra, and the Turks," she stated simply. This made Raziah frowned, "Turks?" Lilith nodded and she gave a rather rueful, sardonic smile, "Shinra's lapdogs," she said dryly, "That's exactly what they are. Shinra's the company that runs this city, along with many other places that have at least one Mako Reactor."

The older girl frowned, "Is that their way of capitalization?" She asked lowly. Lilith gave a mocking light short laugh, "More like monopolizing the world into becoming theirs." Lilith quietly sauntered around the room, "The only thing they haven't monopolized on or come to own yet, is the Lifestream," she gave another dry chuckle, which suddenly made her look very old in Raziah's eyes, "But they're certainly heading in that direction," she scoffed bitterly. This only made Raziah wonder quietly – what could have happened to her penpal friend during the past two years they had been out of contact? The only answer, or conclusion that Raziah had come to was that it had something to do with Shinra. No matter, what sort of false persona Shinra had fabricated for itself, people still talked about all of the illegal things Shinra was doing behind closed doors. After all, installing Mako Reactors in every town, and not just that; SOLDIER? Turks? The scientists? Experiments? Materia? Now the Lifestream? Raziah shuddered at the experiments part, were there really illegal experiments happening behind closed doors away from public prying eyes? Right now it seemed like only Lilith had the answers, since she had lived under Shinra's watchful eyes before.

Lilith slowly sauntered towards the window, and moved the curtains and drapery aside, the boards over the window still left tiny cracks for her to see through – she almost looked like she was checking the coast. She offhandedly noticed the sky, in spite of having a dark green tint to it and being clouded by smoke, was also rather dark. The 15 year old dark haired girl glanced at Raziah, "It must have been a long ride over here," she commented delicately. Raziah nodded, "Yeah it was." Lilith nodded, "You must be tired," she said firmly. Again Raziah couldn't help but see, that Lilith was hinting at something, so she nodded, "Yeah kind of." Lilith nodded again, "You can sleep in my bed," she slowly began walked past the kitchen and living room, to the hallway where it had two doors, "I used to sleep in the other one, some nights I still do, but I usually stay in my guardian's old room," she explained casually.

Raziah nodded slowly, "Ah, okay," she followed after her as Lilith pushed her old bedroom door open, "You can stay as long as you like, and sleep here," she said amiably.

The older girl nodded, sending her curls to sway slightly, "Thank you so much for all of this," she tucked a stray curl behind her ear, with a gentle smile. Lilith nodded, "Don't mention it," she slowly stepped out, "So I'm just gonna let you settle in alright?"

Her friend nodded gratefully again, "Yeah sure." The dark haired girl smiled at her, "Just let me know if you need anything, I'll be in that room," she motioned to the room, otherwise as the one that was known as her guardian's.

Raziah nodded, "Yeah okay. Are you sure?"

Lilith smiled at her disarmingly, though Raziah had failed to see it that way, to her it looked simply charming, "Positive. Just go on and make yourself at home. They're still some things I need to take care of tonight," she said sweetly.

Her friend nodded again and smiled at her, then stepped inside her, formerly known as Lilith's, room, "Thanks again."

The younger girl smiled at her more genuinely, "Think nothing of it." With that she walked out, and left to go to her guardian's room. However, this only left Raziah with more questions than answers; who was Lilith's guardian? Where were they? Why had she not mentioned any name? Why was she looking out the window, almost like she was watching out for someone? And why did she feel that Lilith was hiding something?


End file.
